Happy 2013! I’m back in the office after an extra long vacation, which involved no work and a lot of food, exercise and fun with my kiddos, husband and extended family. I hope you all had some time off as well.

Going through emails and pre-holiday to-dos, I came across some notes from the Imperial Capital Security Investor Conference from a panel discussion that took place at the very end of the conference about BYOD—that’s bring your own device. The panel featured government professionals talking about how they deal with the proliferation of mobile devices, where they’re useful and where they’re exceedingly dangerous.

One speaker said BYOD should stand for “Bring your own disaster.”

They discussed whether you secure at the device level or the app level? (The consensus was app.)

Another speaker said the only reasonable policy is “HYOD” which stands for employers saying, “here’s your own device.”

I’m looking forward to further discussions on this topic at TechSec 2013 (Feb. 5-6 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) One TechSec educational session, “To BYOD or not to BYOD,” will address this topic specifically.

Moderated by Brivo’s Charles Wheeler and featuring cybersecurity specialists, this session will examine the effect on the physical security industry, what should be included in a BYOD policy, how can BYOD comply with data protection and privacy requirements and particularly how it relates to security systems integrators and end users.

BETHESDA, Md.—Brivo Systems, a provider of cloud-based applications for security management, today announced it has formed a corporate partnership with SALTO Systems, an access control company whose U.S. branch is based in Atlanta, according to a company statement.

Steve Van Till, president and CEO of Brivo Systems, a provider of software-as-a-service applications for security management, says it's clear that many people still don’t understand the difference between real cloud solutions and products that merely connect to the Internet. It’s equally clear that many vendors are not helping matters, and are in fact actively confusing the market, he says.